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Greetings from a very hot, dry and dusty Bush Lodge. As we eagerly
await the start of this year's seasonal rains, the temperatures are
soaring daily. Already we have recorded a daily high of 36C (in the
shade) to give you some idea of what we're talking about. Of course
as we know by now: hot + dry = fabulous game viewing! The rangers are
certainly smiling from ear to ear at the moment as each drive brings
with it incredible experiences. One of the highlights this month has
been the arrival of a female leopard known as the 'Beacon female' who
has moved south from the Buffelshoek area with her two young cubs. The
cubs are a male and a female of approximately 6 months of age and they
are seen almost daily, although their mother is somewhat more elusive
as she is often away hunting. One evening, the rangers watched with
baited breath as the cubs were playing atop a termite mound, when they
had a run in with a Mozambiquan spitting cobra which had been living
inside the mound. Fortunately after a few tense moments it ended without
incident and the cobra slithered off into the long grass and the cubs
resumed their playtime. The female cub in particular is very relaxed
and we hope they remain in the area so we can witness their ongoing
development. The adult male leopard with the broken tail know as 'Chila'
visited the lodge one night and his loud territorial calling woke most
of the guests up in the pre-dawn hours. The tracks in the morning showed
where he had patrolled right through the lodge, skirting around rooms
and across lawns. Another new sighting was of 4 huge male lions, East
of Bush Lodge, attempting to hunt buffalo late one afternoon. The rangers
think that the lions followed the herd of buffalo in from the Kruger
National Park and they have since returned, but we hope to have further
sightings of them in the future. Other sightings this month have included
serval, a rarely seen porcupine, hyenas stealing a nyala carcass off
a leopard and dragging it back to their cubs, the Styx lion Pride on
a zebra kill as well as a brief glimpse of a new male leopard.
Back at camp, the crib is still attracting numerous animals and we have
buffaloes and elephants visiting almost daily. One bull elephant got
it in his mind that it was easier to pull out the water pipe from the
ground rather than walk the 100 metres or so to the crib to drink. Day
after day the process of him pulling it out and the rangers repairing
it was repeated until finally Piet got fed up and cemented the pipe
solidly into the ground. This plan seems to have worked and the elephant
now drinks from the crib again. A pair of young male warthogs has settled
into the area and they are often seen foraging on the green grass and
rolling in the mud around the crib. They even made an appearance on
the lawn outside Room 1. Kim had the task of trying to shoo them off
the lawn where they were digging out the much tended grass, and to her
surprise they weren't easily dissuaded and they 'shooed her right back!
Fortunately Kim won in the end and so now the warthogs are relegated
back to the open area beyond the camp. Another new resident in the camp
is a scrub hare mother and leveret. This pair is seen hopping around
the gardens at night and quietly lying up under bushes in the day. Lets
hope the genet doesn't spot them! Our long-term newsletter subscribers
may recall that last year we had a redheaded weaver pair nesting in
the lodge until finally a black mamba snake killed their chicks. Well
this year, not to be daunted, the weavers are back again and the male
can be seen busily constructing nests in the green Fever tree outside
Chalet 4. Lets keep fingers crossed that they fare better this time
round.
We have enjoyed hosting a number of honeymoon couples and we send congratulations
to Tom & Louise, Chris & Kate, Zubin & Alex, Duncan &
Sara, Daniel & Elaine, Emily & Dominique, Stuart & Debbie,
Omar & Karine, Chris & Laura and Victoria & Andy. We also
hosted a tour group from the USA and we are extremely grateful for the
very generous donation from Alan and Daryl Storm towards the village
fund. This money will be used to purchase supplies for the schools.
We love having guests come back and this month saw us welcoming the
Robertson family from Australia back to Bush Lodge after a 6-year absence.
They were thrilled to find many of the same staff still here and enjoyed
catching up with everyone. They saw amazing wildlife and we hope they
return for a third visit one day. Lindsey (from Wisconsin) who was our
volunteer for the past two months left to travel on to Guinea in West
Africa to join her brother who is a Peace Corps volunteer there. We
loved having her around the lodge and she will be much missed and we
wish her all the best as she pursues her career as a police officer
back home in Madison. Kim and Chris took a break and visited the Kruger
National Park where they clocked up some new bird sightings and saw
some fantastic wildlife sightings too. Just goes to prove you can never
have too much of a good thing.
Until next month,
All the best from Liane and the team at Bush Lodge.
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September has seen the return of some of the migrant bird life (Yellow
Billed Kites and Red breasted Swallows). To date there has been no rain
so it is extremely dry out there. We are seeing some new shoots in the
trees so there is a hint of green at this stage. Rumour has it that
we are going to get early rains this year and a lot of rain too, so
perhaps when next we meet, there may be water in the dam again.
We have had our fair share of hot and dry wind this month too, with
temperatures reaching 38C already. The watering holes around the lodge
have been teeming with wildlife so we have been kept on our toes keeping
them filled. The breeding herd of Buffalo can basically drain the whole
pond after a single drinking frenzy. We had a herd of 200 come through
a while ago and as one can imagine it was a sight to behold. The Elephant
have also been a plenty around the lodge and watering holes. The old
bull with the twisted tusk and gammy back foot has been around a lot
lately taking it easy around the lodge. We have seen breeding herds
of about 50, through to lone bulls, from the tea deck. The young male
Leopard, which is rather large, was spotted by the housekeeping ladies
the other morning, outside of khaya 6, during wake up calls. He is seen
very regularly around the camp by staff and guests. During dinner last
week we had Leopard, Elephant and Buffalo under the flood light at the
watering hole. Needless to say that we had to delay main course and
dessert a couple of times while we all, staff and guests, watched them
drink.
The Skutane Lions have been busy this moth with two kills shortly after
each other. They first caught and devoured a Buffalo, which was an amazing
sighting with interaction between the Lion and Vultures. A couple of
days later, with their bellies quite full from the Buffalo, they got
hold of a Zebra. On a rather sad note we report the death of the Crocodile
that many guests saw in a drying dam. She was looking rather poorly
for a while but eventually gave up, despite our efforts to feed her
some chickens!
The lodge has seen a lot of honeymooners this month, so quite a romantic
feel around all the time. We wish all of you all the best and hope to
see you back sometime soon.
Blane and Tanya Stevens come and renew their vows after 25 years of
marriage. It was Blane's birthday too, so a double celebration. The
ceremony was very romantic and charming with the exchange of traditional
African gifts. We had Zebra that came down to the water during the ceremony
just to make it a tad more special. We wish you both all the best for
the next 25 years. It was really great to meet after all the mailing
we did before hand.
Return guests this month included the Griffiths family for the second
time this year, great to see you Bruce, Sharon and the kids. Sarah Pharo
also returned for some Vuyatela magic after a long absence of at least
six months. It was great seeing you again and we have you and your family
in our thoughts at this time of difficulty. Can't wait to see you in
October again. We also saw Manferd and Sigrid Rekos and Wilhelm and
Doris Metschulat back again after about two years. We also welcomed
back the Burger and Read families, which was a great deal of fun.
Birthdays this month included Patrick, Girly and Nelly - congratulations
guys!
Then on a rather sad note we had the most hectic morning on Friday the
23rd. The morning started like no other with a call at six thirty from
Joyce Nyati. She said to me that there was some smoke coming for Inge's
house and she could not see the roof. Well, at that, the reality of
a bush fire set in and I was off after having asked Joyce to call every
one else at the lodge. I arrived at the house and the adrenalin kicked
in as I saw the entire thatch roof had collapsed from the fire. It was
very hot but was luckily contained inside the house and a small bit
of the bush around it. Warren arrived shortly after me, with Joyce and
Thembi, in tow with the keys for the rest of the house. Jimmy had got
hold of Eric who was on his way back for Bush lodge. He had seen the
smoke and knew that we had a problem. We had got the house open and
most of the flames sorted out. The last room we got to was the laundry,
which was filled with smoke. Warren was getting the door unlocked but
with the heat from the fire it was difficult. Joyce and I were running
from room to room getting things out of the rest of the house and also
grabbing fire extinguishers. We got to Warren with four extinguishers
that we had managed to get at, as the rest had been burned already.
The fire in the laundry was not too big, but it moved quickly, and the
fire extinguishers were empty in no time. As Warren turned with the
last one he herd the hissing of a gas bottle that exploded shortly after.
He had moved away by that stage but was slightly injured by flying glass.
Eric was arriving at this time with the "bakkie sakkie" -
a water tanker on the back of a pick up with a high-pressure hose. He
heard the shouts and commands from the open area. Warren left the house
as he was in need of medical attention. Charmian was on stand by at
home calling for help and organizing Warren's trip to the doctor or
emergency room, as we did not know how serious the injury was. Joyce
and I were now standing away from the house waiting for the water to
arrive. As it did I had it in hand and started dousing the flames again.
By that time we had help that arrived from Buffleshoek in the form of
Chris Dreyer and his team and the Bush Lodge guys. Dirk Bekker from
Nkhoro and his team arrived shortly after. By then we had the fire under
control and everyone helped put out any smoldering ashes.
The Vuyatela team would like to thank everyone that helped that day!
Warren was stitched up by the doctor and is back at work up to all his
usual tricks. Joyce has recovered from the shock of the day and after
a good dinner and a huge amount of sleep is up and about. I am just
peachy as always with just a hint of an itchy throat from the smoke
and bellowing at the guys to be careful.
To Luc and Inge we can only offer our help to rebuild what you have
lost!
Until next month Mark and the Vuyatela team
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